The other shoe has dropped for the Catholic Church in the UK: “Catholic agencies given deadline to comply on same-sex adoptions”
Catholic adoption agencies must comply with non-discrimination laws by the end of 2008 or lose all access to public funds, Downing Street said yesterday.
In the interim, faith-based agencies will have a statutory duty to refer applications to adopt from same-sex couples to other agencies. An independent panel of experts will advise the government on how the seven Catholic agencies can cooperate with the laws. It is still possible that the expert panel could find a way for Catholic agencies to be reconfigured with other adoption agencies and so survive, possibly in a consortium, but no concrete details exist at present.
All the mumbo-jumbo and fancy dancing aside, the bottom line now is this: You may not cooperate with evil that good may result. Catholic agencies must not accept public funds under these restrictions. Neither should they refer folks to other agencies. In fact, they should get out of the adoption business until such time as the Church has educated her people who then put pressure on their elected officials to reverse this travesty of social engineering and loss of religious freedom. The so-called “San Francisco” option is itself a travesty as well, because it’s clear that the Catholic Charities officials there have no intention—and never had any intention—of following or accepting Church teaching on the matter of same-sex adoption or even basic sexual morality, for that matter.
The Labor government is calling the British bishops’ bluff. Tony Blair and his cabinet believe that the bishops will bend and acquiesce, compromising their beliefs for some measure of political compromise. Now the ball is in the bishops’ court: Will they stand firm or break?
Technorati Tags:adoption, bishops, Britain, Catholic, homosexuality, politics, religious freedom, UK
Based on past performance, I wouldn’t bet on the bishops’ horse.
Yahoo.co.uk had the headline “Blair overrules Church” which well emphasises the prevailing opinion over here in the UK amongst the ‘ruling class’: the Church is only aceptable when it conforms to socially acceptable standards (which the hierarchy so often does). It is interesting though to compare the response of the England & Wales Hierarchy to that of the Scottish one (NB Great Britain is split betwen two Bishops Conferences). England: “He said that he hoped Catholic adoption agencies could still operate once the transition period was over. “There may well be some way in which, without breaking the law, our Catholic services can continue in their work according to Catholic principles.”” (Quote from Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor on BBC Website) Scotland: A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said he was disappointed with the announcement and planned to study the new regulations to see if there was any way the adoption agencies can continue. He added: “The offer of delayed implementation, however, is meaningless. “It will be no easier for Catholic agencies to act contrary to conscience in 21 months time than it is now. “This decision has wide ramifications. The issue of Catholic adoption agencies is just the tip of the iceberg. “These regulations could compel religious organisations either to renounce their activities or be removed from public life.”
(Quote from Bishops’ Spokesman on Scottish BBC website). The English hierarchy has tried desperatley in recent years to be as ‘respectable’ as the Anglicans.
They (the Bishops) will break and run.
The issue here has always been that the ‘Catholic’ agencies have been playing fast and loose with church teaching in this area. The seven Catholic agencies have at least one-third of the current adoption market (about 2,000 children a year)in England & Wales (Scotland has its own laws on adoption). However, they have been for many years now placing children with single people, some even Gay, with cohabiting couples and many not even Christian and church -going families.
Catholic?
Therefore, the outspokeness of the Bishops on this matter has come across as merely hypocritical, especially after Archbishop Nicholls (Birmingham) let the cat out the bag when being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman – yes, we place the children with gay individuals, just not gay couples; the issue for the church is the same sex sex act and not homosexuality per se (I paraphrase).
“In fact, they should get out of the adoption business until such time as the Church has educated her people who then put pressure on their elected officials to reverse this travesty of social engineering and loss of religious freedom.”
Caring for orphans is a Christian imperative. They should just ignore the law, and face the consequences.
Oppressing orphans is, like sodomy, one of the sins that cries to heaven for vengeance. It’s a pity the two sins are now so closely aligned as to be symbiotic.
It will be interesting to see where the true leadership comes from. I wouldn’t have expected it to come from Scotland, but will be glad to look to that leadership wherever it arises.
Does the law affect private adoption agencies: and if not, is there any possibility the Church could go the private route? I ask because there may be Catholic unwed mothers who would like to put their babies up for adoption in a Catholic home and would not want to risk having them adopted by homosexuals.
Kevin, maybe orphanages would be better than adoption into same-sex couples. Something to ponder.
Carrie: the whole point of this fight is that there is no such thing in Britain as ‘private adoption’. The agencies act as a sort of arm of the courts, preparing the cases for a court decision. If they are banned from acting by the Government, they cease to have a purpose.
Given the different structure of adoption agencies over there, would the children in Catholic orphanages still be available for adoption under the rules that include adoption by homosexual couples? Or could an orphanage be set up that would not allow adoption by anyone?
Now the ball is in the bishops’ court: Will they stand firm or break?
I assume this is a rhetorical question, since we all know what they will do. 🙁
Catholic adoption agencies must comply with non-discrimination laws by the end of 2008 or lose all access to public funds, Downing Street said yesterday
Well, there’s the out. It may require scaling back operations, but they can give up the public funds. Its certainly not a good thing, but better than compromising their principles or getting out all together.
A criticism being leveled at the English Church which seems to have some merit is that Catholic adoption agencies have no problem letting children be adopted by unwed couples, but refuse to let them be adopted by gay couples. The question is raised, Why is a family with one mortal sin at its center okay for children, but not a family with a different mortal sin? How is that not mere discrimination, rather than a standing by principles of morality? I admit it’s hard to see an answer to this.
This should be of no business of the government. I understand there are plenty of secular avenues in Britain for gay couples to do adopt children in need. There’s no need to screw with religious liberty in the process. If the Church determines that is against its religious beliefs to place needy children with gay adoptive parents, or unwed couples, or divorced persons, it should not have the government telling it otherwise.
Carrie asked:
.
English law in the form of the Children Act (1989) allows for this circumstance. Any woman who wishes to put their child up for doption may specify the conditions under which the child should be brought up. So a Catholic woman could specify that they wish the child to be brought up in a catholic environment. Indeed, even more specifically, were she of, say Irish Catholic extraction she could actually specify an Irish Catholic upbringing. These wishes must then be honoured both in social work practice and also in law.